Q&A w/Saints Fans Game Preview -- Playoff Edition ...

Alright, I did this before for our Week 13 Matchup and since I felt that it went really well, thought it might be cool to roll this idea out once again.

Like last time, we appear to have quite a few Saints Fans visiting us, so I thought it would be cool to have an open invitational thread to Saints Fans to share their insights/thoughts on the Saints ... and of course vice versa for Seahawks fans.

Here's the ground rules once again (I'll repeat exactly what I wrote then) -- I'd like for this thread to be a Q&A thread both for Saints Fans ... and for Seahawks Fans. Above all, I want this to be a respectful discourse. Let me put my Dad hat on here for a second and say that I really want to stress respect here. No provoking comments, degrading jokes, smack talk, etc here. If you guys want to do that outside of this thread or in the Smack Shack -- fine. Whatever. Not here alright. Moderators (Radish and others) I'm really hoping for your support again on this, as I want this to be a clean Q&A friendly discourse here. We can disagree obviously, just do so in a respectful manner. I'd like for Saints Fans to feel welcome to honestly share ... because you get the best answers and best discourse that way. Let them see what I already know to be true -- that Seahawks.net is the best NFL fan forum out there bar none. OK?

So, Hawks fans, ask your questions about the Saints ... and I'm hoping Saints fans will feel free do the same and ask us about our team. The idea is to get more educated about each others' teams rather than simply preaching to the choir or talking past one another.

That said, let me be the first to start and I'll begin with a couple of general questions ...

Saints fans, thanks for joining us this week. Would you be so kind as to answer the following intro questions ...

1) Since that 34-7 Loss to Seattle in Week 13, can you recount (from your perspective) how the rest of the regular season went for the Saints? How did the team look to you and do you have any concerns moving forward?

2) Have the Saints suffered key injuries (or even nagging injuries that might not necessarily show up on the official injury report, but are nonetheless concerning)? If so, how have those injuries affected your team ... and how do you envision those at all playing a roll in this game?

3) Last time, it appeared to me that the Seahawks coaching staff was able to effectively exploit weaknesses in the Saints Defense and their approach to that game. How do you envision Rob Ryan attacking Seattle's Offense this time around? Can you give us your assessment of what you believe will be the Saints plan of attack and how effective that will be?

This seems like a great post for the best piece of analysis I have found yet on the game, courtesy of Saintsaintso on BlackandGold.com

12th Man , Monday Night Football , The World is Watching and we throw a Duck losing 34 - 7. The Most Embarrassing loss in the Sean Payton Era.

Let us Analyze what exactly happened ... And what that loss had in Common with all of our Road Playoff Woes ...

@Chicago 2007
Drew Brees Attempted Nearly 50 Passes throwing 27 For 49.
Rushing Attempts 11

@Seattle 2013 Loss
Drew Brees Attempted Nearly 40 Passes throwing 23 for 38.
Rushing Attempts 18

@SanFran 2011 Loss
Drew Brees Attempted nearly 70 Passes throwing 40 for 63 !
Rushing Attempts 14

@Seattle 2010 Loss
Drew Brees Attempted 60 Passes completing 39 ...
Rushing Attempts 22


In all of our Playoff Losses , Our Passing Heavily Outweighs our Rushing Attempts ...

In our 1 and only Road Playoff Win , Our Totals Are :
Drew Brees Attempted 30 Passes , Completing 20.
Rushing Attempts 36.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As You Can See Our Losses are Very Similar , Our Win Stands out Very Much as Far as Offensively which also Corresponds With Our Defense. The More We Throw The More the Clock Stops when We Miss. The Sooner and more frequently Our Defense gets Sentenced out to an Uphill Battle. Which in the Past was a death sentence with our poor defense. So in retrospect we were leaning too much on our Terrible Defense back then.

With the Win We Helped them out by Running the Clock , Winning TOP and Limiting the Opportunities Opposing offenses had against them in terms of Numbers of Snaps against them.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now Lets Examine Seattles 3 Losses This Year...


Cardinals

Carson Palmer 13/25
46 Rushing Attempts


Colts

Andrew Luck 16/29
29 Rushing Attempts


49ers

Colin Kaepernick 15/29
33 Rushing Attempts

Basically as Vaunted as their Defense has been out made to be , If You Run Over Them You Win. In all of their losses the opposition ran for more than they threw ! Great News as Ingram and Robinson are Finding Footing.

Basically We Will Need A Mirror Image of What We Just Did to Philly in the 2nd Half.

1st Key - Run The Ball
2nd Key - Deny Them The Big Play
3rd Key - Get Off The Field on 3rd Down.

Click to expand...

I can't say he is wrong even a little bit.
Of course, those were not the only games where Seattle faced teams who committed to the run, Houston, the Rams in the first matchup, and the Bucs did so as well and still lost.

In short, if the Saints can run the ball so effectively that they get around 50/50 balance, the game will be close and the Saints have a chance. And if they find the run inneffective and try to replace it with a short passing game, as I expect will happen, they will lose big. Put this game on Drew Brees arm and they lose.

Also, damn does that guy like his shift key.

We gave up an average of 3.9 yards per carry throughout the season. Compared to other teams, we've been pretty good against the run. Unlike all the other defensive stats though, we are only 6th best in the league at defending the run. Hardly a "weakness" concerning that the strength of the NO team is their passing game and I think they are playing without Peirre Thomas.

Scottemojo":1v2ghxl9 said:

This seems like a great post for the best piece of analysis I have found yet on the game, courtesy of Saintsaintso on BlackandGold.com

12th Man , Monday Night Football , The World is Watching and we throw a Duck losing 34 - 7. The Most Embarrassing loss in the Sean Payton Era.

Let us Analyze what exactly happened ... And what that loss had in Common with all of our Road Playoff Woes ...

@Chicago 2007
Drew Brees Attempted Nearly 50 Passes throwing 27 For 49.
Rushing Attempts 11

@Seattle 2013 Loss
Drew Brees Attempted Nearly 40 Passes throwing 23 for 38.
Rushing Attempts 18

@SanFran 2011 Loss
Drew Brees Attempted nearly 70 Passes throwing 40 for 63 !
Rushing Attempts 14

@Seattle 2010 Loss
Drew Brees Attempted 60 Passes completing 39 ...
Rushing Attempts 22


In all of our Playoff Losses , Our Passing Heavily Outweighs our Rushing Attempts ...

In our 1 and only Road Playoff Win , Our Totals Are :
Drew Brees Attempted 30 Passes , Completing 20.
Rushing Attempts 36.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As You Can See Our Losses are Very Similar , Our Win Stands out Very Much as Far as Offensively which also Corresponds With Our Defense. The More We Throw The More the Clock Stops when We Miss. The Sooner and more frequently Our Defense gets Sentenced out to an Uphill Battle. Which in the Past was a death sentence with our poor defense. So in retrospect we were leaning too much on our Terrible Defense back then.

With the Win We Helped them out by Running the Clock , Winning TOP and Limiting the Opportunities Opposing offenses had against them in terms of Numbers of Snaps against them.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now Lets Examine Seattles 3 Losses This Year...


Cardinals

Carson Palmer 13/25
46 Rushing Attempts


Colts

Andrew Luck 16/29
29 Rushing Attempts


49ers

Colin Kaepernick 15/29
33 Rushing Attempts

Basically as Vaunted as their Defense has been out made to be , If You Run Over Them You Win. In all of their losses the opposition ran for more than they threw ! Great News as Ingram and Robinson are Finding Footing.

Basically We Will Need A Mirror Image of What We Just Did to Philly in the 2nd Half.

1st Key - Run The Ball
2nd Key - Deny Them The Big Play
3rd Key - Get Off The Field on 3rd Down.

Click to expand...

I can't say he is wrong even a little bit.
Of course, those were not the only games where Seattle faced teams who committed to the run, Houston, the Rams in the first matchup, and the Bucs did so as well and still lost.

In short, if the Saints can run the ball so effectively that they get around 50/50 balance, the game will be close and the Saints have a chance. And if they find the run inneffective and try to replace it with a short passing game, as I expect will happen, they will lose big. Put this game on Drew Brees arm and they lose.

Also, damn does that guy like his shift key.

Click to expand...

Thanks for posting that Scott And I agree -- I don't think he's wrong either. This brings us right back to Pete Carroll and his philosophy of wanting to establish the run, first and foremost. So many teams out there have become so much more pass oriented in their approach ... but is it any coincidence that Seattle, San Francisco, Green Bay, New England, Kansas City, Carolina, and San Diego all made the playoffs ... and all happen to have fairly strong rushing attacks? Hardly.

Last time, Pete Carroll and company really focused on stopping the run first and foremost IMO. Once they did that ... and the score started to get out of hand ... the Saints Offense all of a sudden started to become very one dimensional. And once you're relegated to just passing the ball, you're playing right in to the teeth of the Seahawks Defense.

I agree that the Saints will probably look to get the running game going first and foremost. I don't know how successful they're going to be, as Seattle was very good against the run down the stretch, but I'd say that's probably the plan.

All this really says is teams throw more when they are losing and often still end up losing. If the saints try to run and we stuff it I wouldn't expect them to keep trying if we can keep scoring.

for them to have a chance they need to do to us what Arizona did on d. Throttle our receivers and blitz Wilson. I'm not sure thier d is capable though. They are good but not great, and a little dinged up.

Saints fan here....great forum here, very knowledgable posters and pretty cool for the most part, considering how obnoxious y'all have earned every right to be, but still maintain a respectful approach to opposing fans (unlike your classless divisional counterparts in Cali).

3 main injuries for us going into this game:

Parys Haralson- likely headed to IR with a torn pectoral. Huuuge blow to our run D. His stats don't jump out as anything special, but with him out, and already thin LB position gets extremely weaker.

Pierre Thomas- I think he plays, but would be a substantial blow if he didn't. Ingram finally had a decent game, but let's not kid ourselves it was against a below average philly D that game planned for a shootout. And if he gets gimpy, then we're left with a couple of UDFA rookies and the mighty midget Sproles. (Sigh...bringing horrible memories of the 2011 WC game...Julius jones? Are u kidding me?!) PT is also super valuable in pass protection, which will need to be at its HIGHEST level of efficiency on Saturday.

Keenan Lewis- I believe he'll play, but you never know with all of the new concussion protocols. Wouldn't surprise me in the least if the "league appointed specialist" fails to approve his return, even though the guy was doing everything he could to persuade the team doctors to let him return. *Newsflash: with goodell in attendance at the game, there was no way in hell Payton was going to let him return to that field and risk another punishment from the dictator himself for "failing to adhere to player safety blah blah detrimental to the game" lol.
Lewis is easily our best defender in the secondary, but with the other 2 starting CBs and best safety on IR, it unfortunately doesn't matter much. A handful of UDFA CBs are now the "next men up", and we're still stuck with possibly the worst safety tandem in the league.

1) Since that 34-7 Loss to Seattle in Week 13, can you recount (from your perspective) how the rest of the regular season went for the Saints? Crappy except for Carolina and TB How did the team look to you and do you have any concerns moving forward? O-Line didn't road grade and kept the O from performing like it has since 06. It has improved over the past 3 weeks, especially the running game.

2) Have the Saints suffered key injuries (or even nagging injuries that might not necessarily show up on the official injury report, but are nonetheless concerning)? If so, how have those injuries affected your team ... and how do you envision those at all playing a roll in this game? Graham still has a plantar fascia tear so he's running at about 75%

3) Last time, it appeared to me that the Seahawks coaching staff was able to effectively exploit weaknesses in the Saints Defense and their approach to that game. How do you envision Rob Ryan attacking Seattle's Offense this time around? Can you give us your assessment of what you believe will be the Saints plan of attack and how effective that will be? Well, it's going to be nearly impossible if Keenan Lewis is not cleared to play. Sweeting is decent, but nowhere near his caliber. We lost Vaccaro so Malcolm Jenkins will be playing and I don't have much good to say about his play. Like Philly, we need to stay home and not over persue. That hurt us bad in the last game versus the Hawks. I think we are going to run teh ball and pray for some fumblerooskies and maybe an INT to win. Similar to the Chargers.

Scottemojo":3khpk9k3 said:

This seems like a great post for the best piece of analysis I have found yet on the game, courtesy of Saintsaintso on BlackandGold.com

12th Man , Monday Night Football , The World is Watching and we throw a Duck losing 34 - 7. The Most Embarrassing loss in the Sean Payton Era.

Let us Analyze what exactly happened ... And what that loss had in Common with all of our Road Playoff Woes ...

@Chicago 2007
Drew Brees Attempted Nearly 50 Passes throwing 27 For 49.
Rushing Attempts 11

@Seattle 2013 Loss
Drew Brees Attempted Nearly 40 Passes throwing 23 for 38.
Rushing Attempts 18

@SanFran 2011 Loss
Drew Brees Attempted nearly 70 Passes throwing 40 for 63 !
Rushing Attempts 14

@Seattle 2010 Loss
Drew Brees Attempted 60 Passes completing 39 ...
Rushing Attempts 22


In all of our Playoff Losses , Our Passing Heavily Outweighs our Rushing Attempts ...

In our 1 and only Road Playoff Win , Our Totals Are :
Drew Brees Attempted 30 Passes , Completing 20.
Rushing Attempts 36.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As You Can See Our Losses are Very Similar , Our Win Stands out Very Much as Far as Offensively which also Corresponds With Our Defense. The More We Throw The More the Clock Stops when We Miss. The Sooner and more frequently Our Defense gets Sentenced out to an Uphill Battle. Which in the Past was a death sentence with our poor defense. So in retrospect we were leaning too much on our Terrible Defense back then.

With the Win We Helped them out by Running the Clock , Winning TOP and Limiting the Opportunities Opposing offenses had against them in terms of Numbers of Snaps against them.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now Lets Examine Seattles 3 Losses This Year...


Cardinals

Carson Palmer 13/25
46 Rushing Attempts


Colts

Andrew Luck 16/29
29 Rushing Attempts


49ers

Colin Kaepernick 15/29
33 Rushing Attempts

Basically as Vaunted as their Defense has been out made to be , If You Run Over Them You Win. In all of their losses the opposition ran for more than they threw ! Great News as Ingram and Robinson are Finding Footing.

Basically We Will Need A Mirror Image of What We Just Did to Philly in the 2nd Half.

1st Key - Run The Ball
2nd Key - Deny Them The Big Play
3rd Key - Get Off The Field on 3rd Down.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

This is a great example for the cause/effect argument. Does anybody really believe Brees/Payton and the saints wanted to throw for 50-60-70 passes in those games or did they find themselves behind playing catch up. I would be willing to bet on the behind answer w/out looking.

Same argument can be made for the Hawks. All those losses had series of oddities/calls/"bad bounces" that put those teams in position to stay within their gameplans and stay more balanced.

His keys are right on but the real key is being able to execute those keys and stay with your gameplan. The biggest key is minimizing your mistakes and the ability to get back on schedule w/out putting yourself in a worse position by compounding the situation w/ another mistake(s). I believe for the most part the Hawks are one of the best (if not the best) at this evidenced by their come from behind wins and them never losing a game by more than a TD the last couple years.

Summary
Key #4: Weather the storm as they say

I'd be shocked if Payton didn't come out and run the ball. The Hawks gave a good but not great run D and an outstanding pass D. Keep the clock moving, don't turn the ball over and make our offense (which has been struggling) get a lot of first downs before getting into scoring range. You have to stick to the run and not let our pass D control the game. Be satisfied with punting early and giving our O long fields. Make our offense drive by playing the field position game early and take your shots when you're in a manageable part of the field. The Hawks don't get beat by explosive offenses, they get beat when the other team loads up with big bodies and comes at us.

@oregonhawkfan.

Of course some of that is cause/effect. However, on the road the Saints have often had a pronounced tendency to drop the run game quickly and replace it with a lateral and short middle running game. Which would clearly boost the pass numbers.

For instance, the Saints one score vs Seattle last game featured 3 runs, two of which gained one or less. It also featured 8 passes, all complete(one incompletion was wiped out by a Richard Sherman personal foul in the EZ), and only one of which was at least 10 yards down field. They made that adjustment after being ineffective with an intermediate and deep passing game early on mixed with a run game that was DOA.

8:3 pass run ratio in the second quarter after not being able to run early is definitely cause effect.

Payton knows they have to run. He also knows that they couldn't. I actually expect him to open the game with a short pass game, lots of three step hitters and screens, 8 yard digs, short outs, stuff like that, to try and adjust our personnel and spread the linebackers so they can open some running lanes. We played a lot of zone last time, they are going to try and get onto those zone holes early to keep Kam honest. Then start to mix in more run. He knows they can't get behind early, and trying to get chunk plays last time was how they got behind.

To the Saints Fans,

Graham looks like he is hurting to me. Doesn't seem to have the same explosiveness he usually has.

Brees seems to not be playing his best ball at the moment, do you agree? I have always liked Brees so I hope he gets it going (after this game .

Here is to a good game and no one gets hurt.

A saints fan here

( How the Saints stay in the game )

Forget about the matchup for a second and focus on the fundamentals that every road team that is playing equal or better talent must do (a majority of the time) to win.

1) Take an early lead -- Seattle is a daunting challenge for any team in Washington and to be successful you have to gain the early momentum and minimize the effect of the crowd. In the first meeting the Saints went down 17-0 in the first quarter. Game Over. If the Saints go down 17 in the first quarter this game I will be transitioning my way to the pool hall.

2) Avoid turnovers -- In the first meeting the Saints held Seattle on their first possession to three ( somewhat a moral victory ) but then there was the Fumble. Winning the turnover battle is a must in this game. If they lose this battle like they did against the Eagles, I do not think the gods will be as forgiving.

3) Make a big play -- The Saints had none against Seattle in the first meeting. I doubt the Saints will drive up and down the field and get the needed points to win .

4) Tackle -- If Lynch has a run similar to the last playoff game.....not sure how to continue the sentence but but somehow it ends with me being naked tied upside down to a spinning ceiling fan. Saints must tackle plain and simple.

5) Optimize and Capitalize on whatever advantage you have -- I am not really sure what that is to be honest but whatever it is you must exploit it(maybe its Graham maybe its Sproles)Maybe the young stills will make the play down the field. I do think that Brees being the hall of fame vet that he is has the ability to perform well against any defense. He most likely will need a hall of fame type performance to win this game.

6) Avoid penalties

I think the Saints play well. The Seahawks are the best team in the NFL but there have been some games this year at home where teams have played well(tampa, tenn, arizona). If I were to sit down and be honest with myself Im sure there is a good chance I would take the Seahawks to pull away in the second half, but I will not sit down and be honest with myself. Somehow everything goes right for the SAints and they make a 50 yard field goal as time expires to pull of the upset. WHO DAT!!!!!



My questions would be
1) In what type of situations has Russel Wilson shown the biggest weakness?
2) What is the biggest area of concern for the seahawk defense going into this game?

Good Saints fans on here. It was pathetic on the Blackandgold forum. Hope to have some good dialogue this week.

This comment broke me up. lol


4) Tackle -- If Lynch has a run similar to the last playoff game.....not sure how to continue the sentence but but somehow it ends with me being naked tied upside down to a spinning ceiling fan. Saints must tackle plain and simple.

I think this is the game the running game gets going and forces the DBs to move up closer to the line of scrimmage. If we can do that I think this gets ugly early.

:les:

lengai":1m317si7 said:

1) Since that 34-7 Loss to Seattle in Week 13, can you recount (from your perspective) how the rest of the regular season went for the Saints? Crappy except for Carolina and TB How did the team look to you and do you have any concerns moving forward? O-Line didn't road grade and kept the O from performing like it has since 06. It has improved over the past 3 weeks, especially the running game.

2) Have the Saints suffered key injuries (or even nagging injuries that might not necessarily show up on the official injury report, but are nonetheless concerning)? If so, how have those injuries affected your team ... and how do you envision those at all playing a roll in this game? Graham still has a plantar fascia tear so he's running at about 75%

3) Last time, it appeared to me that the Seahawks coaching staff was able to effectively exploit weaknesses in the Saints Defense and their approach to that game. How do you envision Rob Ryan attacking Seattle's Offense this time around? Can you give us your assessment of what you believe will be the Saints plan of attack and how effective that will be? Well, it's going to be nearly impossible if Keenan Lewis is not cleared to play. Sweeting is decent, but nowhere near his caliber. We lost Vaccaro so Malcolm Jenkins will be playing and I don't have much good to say about his play. Like Philly, we need to stay home and not over persue. That hurt us bad in the last game versus the Hawks. I think we are going to run teh ball and pray for some fumblerooskies and maybe an INT to win. Similar to the Chargers.

Click to expand...

I honestly hadn't heard about the plantar fasciatis tear on Jimmy Graham. That could be HUGELY significant in this game.

Keenan Lewis, I'm highly doubting that if he suffered a concussion that he's going to play. This season, the rule of thumb for the Hawks has generally been if a player gets one -- he is OUT for the game. Period. I don't know if I can honestly think of an exception.

Parys Haralson likely done for the season as well?!? Whooo! If I'm a Saints fan, I'm hoping and praying that Rob Ryan can dial up the pass rush and somehow pressure Wilson. That's going to be more difficult than last time though, as all 5 starters on the Hawks Offensive Line are now back and the pass protection has been looking far better than it did earlier in the season.

lengai":3s7n93i1 said:

1) Since that 34-7 Loss to Seattle in Week 13, can you recount (from your perspective) how the rest of the regular season went for the Saints? Crappy except for Carolina and TB How did the team look to you and do you have any concerns moving forward?



2) Have the Saints suffered key injuries (or even nagging injuries that might not necessarily show up on the official injury report, but are nonetheless concerning)? If so, how have those injuries affected your team ... and how do you envision those at all playing a roll in this game?



3) Last time, it appeared to me that the Seahawks coaching staff was able to effectively exploit weaknesses in the Saints Defense and their approach to that game. How do you envision Rob Ryan attacking Seattle's Offense this time around? Can you give us your assessment of what you believe will be the Saints plan of attack and how effective that will be?

Click to expand...

1)At home great, away games have been bad all year. Ever since we replaced Brown at LT with Armstead our Oline has played a lot better. Our running game has improved over the last month also. Brees has not played good away from the dome unfortunately.

2.) Other than Harylson who didn't play alot of snaps anyhow not really. I believe P. Thomas will be back and we played fine w/o him. I would excpect K. Lewis to come back this week also. I don't believe Graham is still as affected by his injury as say he was a month ago. He has looked alot better but coach Payton has tried to be more balanced and it has somewhat hurt Graham statistically lately.


3.) Hopefully we won't blitz as much. Rob Ryan normally doesn't blitz as much as people think, maybe 1 but seldom more than 1 extra man comes at QB. He was sending the house against ya'll last time and it backfired big time.



Now if you want to talk about injuries from the first of the year its been aweful. Our # 2 and 3 cb, starting safety Vacarro, starting DE in Coleman, starting OLB in V. Butler, and deep threat WR in Joe Morgan. Now add OLB Harylson to the list.

Hawkscanner":lt1w7z8n said:

lengai":lt1w7z8n said:

1)Parys Haralson likely done for the season as well?!? Whooo! If I'm a Saints fan, I'm hoping and praying that Rob Ryan can dial up the pass rush and somehow pressure Wilson. That's going to be more difficult than last time though, as all 5 starters on the Hawks Offensive Line are now back and the pass protection has been looking far better than it did earlier in the season.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

He is good against the run but nothing special with blitzing and coverage. Don't get me wrong, I wish he was playing. We may have to play Herring who is aweful against the run but great in coverage at his spot or Dawson who has been held out most of year since we started getting healthy on Dline and LB around mid season. Dawson made some big plays earlier this year so we will see.

AbsolutNET":25eiokyt said:

I'd be shocked if Payton didn't come out and run the ball. The Hawks gave a good but not great run D and an outstanding pass D. Keep the clock moving, don't turn the ball over and make our offense (which has been struggling) get a lot of first downs before getting into scoring range. You have to stick to the run and not let our pass D control the game. Be satisfied with punting early and giving our O long fields. Make our offense drive by playing the field position game early and take your shots when you're in a manageable part of the field. The Hawks don't get beat by explosive offenses, they get beat when the other team loads up with big bodies and comes at us.

Click to expand...

If you take out the two outlier games from mid-season, which I think is totally fair since we demolished St. Louis's rush offense later, Seattle's run defense has been pretty close to spectacular.

Hawkscanner":2l9tb4mh said:

lengai":2l9tb4mh said:

1) Since that 34-7 Loss to Seattle in Week 13, can you recount (from your perspective) how the rest of the regular season went for the Saints? Crappy except for Carolina and TB How did the team look to you and do you have any concerns moving forward? O-Line didn't road grade and kept the O from performing like it has since 06. It has improved over the past 3 weeks, especially the running game.

2) Have the Saints suffered key injuries (or even nagging injuries that might not necessarily show up on the official injury report, but are nonetheless concerning)? If so, how have those injuries affected your team ... and how do you envision those at all playing a roll in this game? Graham still has a plantar fascia tear so he's running at about 75%

3) Last time, it appeared to me that the Seahawks coaching staff was able to effectively exploit weaknesses in the Saints Defense and their approach to that game. How do you envision Rob Ryan attacking Seattle's Offense this time around? Can you give us your assessment of what you believe will be the Saints plan of attack and how effective that will be? Well, it's going to be nearly impossible if Keenan Lewis is not cleared to play. Sweeting is decent, but nowhere near his caliber. We lost Vaccaro so Malcolm Jenkins will be playing and I don't have much good to say about his play. Like Philly, we need to stay home and not over persue. That hurt us bad in the last game versus the Hawks. I think we are going to run teh ball and pray for some fumblerooskies and maybe an INT to win. Similar to the Chargers.

Click to expand...

I honestly hadn't heard about the plantar fasciatis tear on Jimmy Graham. That could be HUGELY significant in this game.

Keenan Lewis, I'm highly doubting that if he suffered a concussion that he's going to play. This season, the rule of thumb for the Hawks has generally been if a player gets one -- he is OUT for the game. Period. I don't know if I can honestly think of an exception.

Parys Haralson likely done for the season as well?!? Whooo! If I'm a Saints fan, I'm hoping and praying that Rob Ryan can dial up the pass rush and somehow pressure Wilson. That's going to be more difficult than last time though, as all 5 starters on the Hawks Offensive Line are now back and the pass protection has been looking far better than it did earlier in the season.

Click to expand...

I know if I was a Seattle fan I'd be pretty happy going into this game. Jimmy had the tear last time we played. He's slower but still catches a few. When we played the 49ers two of their players got to play after head injuries and ours didn't so hopefully Keenan can play. We'll likey run more 4-3 or 3-3-5 and use Ramon Humber. Blitzing won't work...Wilson showed that last time although he saw it coming for like 10 seconds. That was a T.O. call for sure. If you see us re-sign Chris Carr that will be very telling.

tiger_bait":248u5ojp said:

A saints fan here

( How the Saints stay in the game )

Forget about the matchup for a second and focus on the fundamentals that every road team that is playing equal or better talent must do (a majority of the time) to win.

1) Take an early lead -- Seattle is a daunting challenge for any team in Washington and to be successful you have to gain the early momentum and minimize the effect of the crowd. In the first meeting the Saints went down 17-0 in the first quarter. Game Over. If the Saints go down 17 in the first quarter this game I will be transitioning my way to the pool hall.

2) Avoid turnovers -- In the first meeting the Saints held Seattle on their first possession to three ( somewhat a moral victory ) but then there was the Fumble. Winning the turnover battle is a must in this game. If they lose this battle like they did against the Eagles, I do not think the gods will be as forgiving.

3) Make a big play -- The Saints had none against Seattle in the first meeting. I doubt the Saints will drive up and down the field and get the needed points to win .

4) Tackle -- If Lynch has a run similar to the last playoff game.....not sure how to continue the sentence but but somehow it ends with me being naked tied upside down to a spinning ceiling fan. Saints must tackle plain and simple.

5) Optimize and Capitalize on whatever advantage you have -- I am not really sure what that is to be honest but whatever it is you must exploit it(maybe its Graham maybe its Sproles)Maybe the young stills will make the play down the field. I do think that Brees being the hall of fame vet that he is has the ability to perform well against any defense. He most likely will need a hall of fame type performance to win this game.

6) Avoid penalties

I think the Saints play well. The Seahawks are the best team in the NFL but there have been some games this year at home where teams have played well(tampa, tenn, arizona). If I were to sit down and be honest with myself Im sure there is a good chance I would take the Seahawks to pull away in the second half, but I will not sit down and be honest with myself. Somehow everything goes right for the SAints and they make a 50 yard field goal as time expires to pull of the upset. WHO DAT!!!!!



My questions would be
1) In what type of situations has Russel Wilson shown the biggest weakness?
2) What is the biggest area of concern for the seahawk defense going into this game?

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Saints fan here.

I would also like to add that we had our worst defensive performance of the year in that Monday night game. We uncharacteristically gave up many third and longs, which were completely baffling to us Saints fans. You can look up the stats on the year and we have been one of the best defenses on third down percentage given up; you guys just kept getting every single third down and we had no answers.

We just held the number two offense in the league to 3 of 12 on third down in their own house, and only gave up around 250 TOTAL yards in the entire contest. Had we not lost Keenan, those stats would have more than likely been better in our favor.

Another trend I see as of late that we must correct is penalties on offense which kill decent drives. Lately we have shot ourselves in the foot on many occasions with holding, false starts, personal fouls, and everything else you could imagine. If we can eliminate the offensive penalties and play defense like we have the entire year, aside from the Monday night debacle, this game will be very competitive and could come down to the last drive of the game.

Anyway just my .02, but on a side note I have a question for you Seahawks fans.

Is the confidence in beating us a farce, or are you guys really not worried about the Saints at all?

Two teams which we beat this year have given the hawks trouble in Seattle (Tampa and Arizona). I understand the confidence in your team as you are the one seed and the only team in the entire NFL more balanced on offense and defense than us, but I sense a bit of arrogance from certain fans that I sure hope the team doesn't share as well. If I were Seattle I would prepare for a team on a mission arriving Saturday, and not be surprised if the result is a dog fight greater than Century Link field has seen in some time.